There is a continual effort to increase the performance of transistors, such as MOSFETs, that are used in integrated circuits (ICs) in modern electronic devices. An important measure of transistor performance is the amount of current that the transistor can provide when it is in an “on state” (i.e. turned on), which can be referred to as “drive current.” However, drive current is often increased at the expense of “off state” current, which refers to leakage current that the transistor draws when it is in an “off state” (i.e. turned off) and which can cause an undesirable increase in stand-by power consumption of the transistor.
One conventional method for increasing drive current is to lower the threshold voltage of the transistor. However, lowering the threshold voltage to achieve an increase in drive current can cause a higher increase in transistor leakage current, which is undesirable.